Analytics

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it will donate $80 million to help close the gender gap and advance pay equality. "We cannot close the gender gap if we do not close the data gap," Melinda Gates, who co-chairs the foundation with her husband Bill Gates, said in a statement. "If advocacy for women and girls is about giving voice to the voiceless – gathering and analyzing data is about making the invisible visible." To that end, Gates said the funding will be used to collect data in areas such as time use, unpaid work, and economic empowerment. Gates revealed the three-year initiative last week at the 4th Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. “There are two reasons why it is absolutely fundamental that women go into technology: One is that they are some of the highest-paying jobs in the United States, so that should be open to women," Gates told New York Magazine after the announcement. "Secondly, that’s where all the new innovations are coming from.” Gates also said that the technology industry needs to arm more women with the capital necessary to create apps innovations.  Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

Making the healthcare system more patient-centered is the disruption the industry needs, said David Feinberg, MD.

The number of chief nursing informatics officers has increased in health systems over the past five years, with more designated CNIO-positions than ever before. The bump comes at a time when the need to bridge the gap between clinical and informatics increasing, according to a recent report commissioned by the workforce search firm Witt/Kieffer.   The research team surveyed 100 respondents from medical centers, independent hospitals and hospitals part of a larger health system to examine the evolving role of the CNIO and whether organizations are recruiting for the position to support the informatics landscape. These results were compared to a similar survey conducted in 2011.   Overall, there are 10 percent more CNIOs in place in organizations than compared to 2011, according to Chris Wierz, principal, Witt/Kieffer Information Technology Practice. While some organizations have created the position of CNIO, others have modified roles to incorporate the CNIO title.   "CNIOs now have a 'seat at the table," Wierz told Healthcare IT News. "From a CNIO perspective, it's so much about collaboration and consensus building; getting those groups of people together when it comes to IT. It's always been about trying to bring disparate groups together to understand the workflow around the electronic medical records and today's IT."   "Communication is a very large role, as well," she added, "acting as a translator between IT and my clinical staff. The ability to articulate your knowledge of IT and clinical is critical in this role."   Depending on the organization, the CNIO is responsible for EMR implementation, clinical IT, optimization of nursing strategy as it relates to IT, and creating a picture of day-to-day operation on clinical IT matters, Wierz said.   Despite the need to bridge these departments, Wierz said there are still many barriers to overcome before the role becomes more commonplace. "One of the reasons this role isn’t gaining enough traction is that there's an IT resistance to it."   Some organizations are lacking the funding for establishing the CNIO position, while other hospitals indicated their organization wasn't big enough to require one, according to the survey.   "Some people will say the reason why they're not implementing a CNIO is because then are you going to need even more "chief" roles," she added. "It's going to be interesting to see whether the CNIO turns into a chief clinical role to help with daily operations."   Twitter: @JessieFDavis Email the writer: jessica.davis@himssmedia.com

At Healthcare IT News' inaugural Pop Health Forum 2016 in Boston May 19 and 20, clinicians, technology professionals and healthcare experts from across the country are gathered to explore the key enablers of effective population health management strategies: data and analytics, care coordination, patient engagement and more. Check back here for continuous updates.

Decisio Health, a startup that aims to help acute-care provider organizations continually improve their clinical processes, launched the Decisio Health Clinical Intelligence Platform Tuesday and also announced $4.5M in Series A funding.

Jeffrey Carr, most recently the entrepreneur-in-residence at a startup incubator, has joined Mercy Health as the health system's first chief innovation officer, the health system announced Tuesday. Mercy Health, a Catholic healthcare system, serves Ohio and Kentucky with 21 hospitals in Ohio and two in Kentucky. In his new role, Carr will be responsible for fostering a culture of innovation and investment throughout the system, officials said. "With more than 18 years of technology, consulting and executive experience, Jeff Carr understands the importance of developing strategic, innovative approaches to strengthen an organization," said Drew Banks, Mercy Health's chief strategy officer and Carr's boss, in a statement. [See also: Running list: 2016 notable hires, promotions in health IT.] Before joining Mercy Health, Carr worked as entrepreneur-in-residence at Cintrifuse, which provides services to Cincinnati's burgeoning start-up community. He mentored start-ups, led the effort to create a digital health venture studio and also supported a number of the region's leading organizations working with innovative startups. Carr was one of the founders of the startup Intelemage, which was acquired in April by Medidata, the SaaS technology company that specializes in developing and marketing a cloud-based platform of applications and data analytics to address operations throughout clinical trials. Early in his career, he was one of the leaders at Zoomtown, the high-speed internet access company and startup incubator whose model closely mirrors the open innovation approach he will take at Mercy Health. He has also served as a senior vice president and chief technology officer at Cincinnati Bell, where he led the sale of Cincinnati Bell Wireless to Verizon. Other positions included chief information security officer at GE Aviation, and senior executive at Accenture.

UC Health – the flagship University of Cincinnati Medical Center, as well as 167 of its affiliated practices – has reached the Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model. HIMSS Analytics developed the EMRAM in 2005. Its eight stages (0-7) track a hospital’s implementation and use of health IT applications. In 2011, it launched the ambulatory model, meant to evaluate the progress and impact of EMRs for ambulatory facilities – physician practices, outpatient centers and specialty clinics – owned by hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database. Only 4.2 percent of more than 5,400 U.S. hospitals in HIMSS Analytics' database have attained Stage 7; just 7.9 percent of more than 34,000 ambulatory clinics have scored a Stage 7 Ambulatory Award. [Also: Benchmarks: Stage 7 success stories] UC Health, the University of Cincinnati’s affiliated health system is the region’s only academic health system.  It includes University of Cincinnati Medical Center, three additional hospitals, and the University of Cincinnati Physicians, Cincinnati’s largest multi-specialty practice group with more than 700 board-certified clinicians and surgeons. John H. Daniels, global vice president of HIMSS Analytics' healthcare advisory services group, said UC Health "has gone above and beyond the EMRAM Stage 7 criteria. They have already extended the closed-loop medication administration process to their infusion clinic and for interventional radiology cases. Combined with a strong population health program, the UC Health team is making a real difference in their community." "This accomplishment is due to our commitment to improved patient outcomes through the expanded use of information technology," said Jay Brown, UC Health's senior vice president and chief information officer, in a statement. "As the region’s only academic health system, we are surrounded by innovators and visionary leaders who have recognized the importance of leveraging these tools," he added. "The HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Award highlights our dedication to delivering the highest quality of care and enhancing the experience of our patients."

Aurora, Colorado-based UCHealth has partnered again with LeanTaaS, a Silicon Valley-based predictive analytics startup. It will implement iQueue for Operating Rooms, which combines lean principles with advanced data tools for operating room utilization improvements. The flagship University of Colorado Hospital is the first of the system's five hospitals to deploy iQueue for Operating Rooms; UCHealth plans to integrate the platform at its other hospitals within the next year. The iQueue platform taps into UCHealth's Epic EHR and analyzes OR usage patterns to determine how to reallocate time to surgeons for improved efficiency. There's also a mobile feature that connects surgeons to the platform with real-time data for OR block management. "Sometimes it's really hard to just look at data and say, what do I do with this? How do I make the data work for the organization?" said University of Colorado Hospital Chief Information Officer Steve Hess. "The data may be there, but we all need to ask ourselves, is the data creating the story that we need? [Also: Analytics works wonders in Colorado] "With its machine learning and tools pushing data to surgeons, these are the changes that LeanTaaS is doing that will make the difference," Hess said. "This is actually retrospective and predictive. Not only will it tell us about OR usage, but it can also tell us what's happening and where it's going." By deploying this platform into the complex OR scheduling challenges facing UCHealth, the organization hopes to tackle capacity issues, improve OR utilization and workflow, according to Hess. Moving the needle just 1 percent, on one OR room can contribute to the bottom line and improve efficiencies, he said. "The combination of analytics, real-time data and block release and assignment exchange platform for smartphones: We see it as a game changer," Hess said. "It's too early to tell what kind of utilization we'll see, but we do expect this to be extremely positive." This is the second time UCHealth has turned to LeanTaas to improve its hospital operations. This past fall, the health system deployed LeanTaaS' iQueue for Infusion Centers across its entire system. Its success drove the decision to bring the technology into its operating room scheduling, Hess said. Twitter: @JessieFDavis Email the writer: jessica.davis@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

IBM plans to launch a cloud-based version of Watson's cognitive computing technology, designed solely to zero in on cybersecurity language, as a part of a year-long research project, the company announced Tuesday. The Watson for Cyber Security platform is touted as the first technology to offer cognition of security data. Watson will pull the majority of its cognitive data from the X-Force research library: a threat intelligence platform with 20 years of security research, details on 8 million spam and phishing attacks and more than 100,000 documented vulnerabilities. "Even if the industry was able to fill the estimated 1.5 million open cybersecurity jobs by 2020, we'd still have a skills crisis in security," Marc van Zadelhoff, general manager of IBM Security said in a statement. "The volume and velocity of data in security is one of our greatest challenges in dealing with cybercrime." [Also: IBM Watson offers free storage to Apple ResearchKit developers] Beginning in the fall, IBM will also collaborate with eight universities to expand the amount of security data the company has already inputted into the platform. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Pennsylvania State University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and New York University are among the institutions who will work with IBM to contribute to Watson's training. The students will also train Watson on cybersecurity language, while working close with IBM's security experts to learn how to read security intelligence to gain first-hand experience in cognitive security. IBM plans to process up to 15,000 security documents – threat intelligence reports, cybercrime strategies, threat databases – each month over the next training stages in collaboration will all stakeholders. Watson for Cybersecurity will not only provide insights on any emerging threats, it will also make recommendations on how to stop them. Additionally, the system will use data mining techniques to find outliers. IBM will begin beta production deployments later this year. "By leveraging Watson’s ability to bring context to staggering amounts of unstructured data, impossible for people alone to process, we will bring new insights, recommendations and knowledge to security professionals," said van Zadelhoff, "bringing greater speed and precision to the most advanced cybersecurity analysts, and providing novice analysts with on-the-job training."

Implementation of MACRA will impact not only physicians, but also the hospitals with whom they partner, the American Hospital Association told Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of CMS, and the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health on Wednesday. Health Subcommittee members met with Slavitt Wednesday on the implementation of the Medicare Access and the CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. MACRA's Quality Payment Program, released by CMS on April 27, consolidates a patchwork of programs into two paths for physicians receiving Medicare payments: the Merit-based Incentive Payment Systems (MIPS); and an Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM). The AHA said it applauds MACRA's streamlining of the physician reporting burden, but still has concerns, especially for smaller practices, and is disappointed the federal government is providing no financial incentives for upfront investments in technology to meet the demands of implementation. The estimated investment is $11.6 million for a small accountable care organization and $26.1 million for a medium ACO, the AHA said. [See also: A deep dive on the 'overwhelmingly complex' MACRA proposed rule.] "Hospitals that employ physicians directly may bear the cost of implementation of an ongoing compliance with the new physician performance reporting requirements under the Merit-based Incentive Payment Systems, as well as be at risk for any payment adjustments," the AHA said in a statement. "Moreover, hospitals may be called upon to participate in alternative payment models so that the physicians with whom they partner can qualify for bonus payments and exemption from MIPS reporting requirements that accompanies the APM 'track.'" House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Chairman Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, asked Slavitt about concerns he's heard about the difficulty smaller practices may have coming into compliance, saying the rural provider, and one or two-person provider group "has a bunch of angst right now." Slavitt said the data shows that smaller and solo practices can succeed as well as physicians in larger-size groups as long as they report. It's up to CMS to make the reporting burden as easy as possible, Slavitt said. "Importantly we are looking for additional steps and ideas as people review the rules, but I will say that we are focusing on technical assistance, providing access to medical home models, opportunities to report in groups and using a reporting process that automatically feeds data, reduces the number of measures and overall lowers the burden for small practices," Slavitt said. Small physicians can report in groups and other physicians may not have to report at all because they're under a minimum threshold for the number of Medicare patients they see, Slavitt said. Slavitt said he's heard from physicians that they want to focus on care, not reporting. Congress has provided funding for MACRA technical assistance to small practices, rural practices and others, he said. MACRA replaces the sustainable growth rate and changes the way physicians and providers are paid, moving the healthcare system closer to CMS's goal of tying 50 percent of Medicare payments to alternative payment models by 2018. CMS is taking comment on the MACRA proposal for 60 days. "Success will come from adopting approaches that are practice-driven," Slavitt said. "It is our intent to align the MIPS and the Advanced APM components of the Quality Payment Program, allowing maximum flexibility for clinicians to switch between MIPS and participation in Advanced APMS based on what works best for them and their patients." To spur motivation, MACRA established an 11-member independent advisory committee, the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee, PTAC, that will meet quarterly to review payment models. [See also: A deep dive on the 'overwhelmingly complex' MACRA proposed rule.] The AHA has formed its own clinical advisory group to identify  important policy and operational implications of MIPS and APMS for hospitals. The AHA recommends hospital-based physicians be able to use their hospital's quality reporting and pay-for-performance program to measure performance in MIPS; employ risk adjustment rigorously, including for sociodemographics to ensure providers do not perform poorly simply because they care for more complex patients; and align EHR Incentive Program changes for physicians with those of eligible hospitals. The AHA applauded CMS's proposal to reduce the number of measures for quality reporting from nine to six, and also for its recent work with private insurers and physician groups to reach agreement on a common set of physician quality measures that can be used in both CMS and private payer pay-for-performance programs. "Physicians and hospitals alike spend significant resources reporting on multiple versions of measures assessing the same aspect of care to meet the differing requirements of CMS and individual private payers," the AHA said. The AHA is disappointed CMS has proposed a narrow definition of financial risk in advanced APMs for purposes of MACRA bonus payments, in not recognizing the upfront investment made by providers to implement alternative payment models. The AHA also said fraud and abuse laws need to be modified for a "legal safe zone" where physicians and hospitals can share information Twitter: @SusanJMorse